Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers

89 reviews

veronica214's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

Lots of twists and cliff hanger chapters.

In 1994, five-year-old January Jacobs was murdered in her home. Twenty years later her best friend Margot grew up to be a journalist for IndyNow. Devastatingly, another little girl has been killed in Margot's hometown. Margot decides to move back to Wakarusa to live with her ill uncle, and also investigate if these two murders are connected.

Some plot points felt sort of weak to me. But overall, a decent thriller.
 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Pedophilia, Suicide, Dementia, and Grief

Moderate: Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Kidnapping, and Stalking

Minor: Miscarriage and Rape

yeahok's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

No spoilers here, but wow. That ending. 🫢

I was able to predict some things- or at least I had ideas in the same ballpark. It was at times confusing with all the past and present story lines, but I eventually got the hang of it. 

There are still a few unanswered questions, so I’m wondering if there will be a second book? 

I do not feel good after reading this one and would probably warn my sensitive reader friends about the murderer’s shocking, heartbreaking, detailed retelling of the crime.  Don’t get me wrong, the book was good, just sad. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

awildintrovert's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

I really hoped the end wouldn’t be as bad as people were making it out to be, but it was one hell of a cliffhanger for a seemingly one-off book. It’s easy to read and the mystery hooked me immediately. The narrative is easy to follow even while it’s between 3 different people. The two mc’s are written well but not without their flaws, and there were a couple of points where I really thought “she’s not really that dumb, is she?” (Both mc’s are women) While they make the same mistakes and shitty choices multiple times over. But the story itself was really good, the twists were crazy, cohesive, and well done, all in all I loved the book. But that ending…to take it to that high of a cliff and end it the way it did? Killed the joy I received from it a lot. I would recommend the book if you don’t mind unanswered cliffhangers, otherwise I just hope she’ll write another.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Dementia

Moderate: Dementia and Abandonment

Minor: Addiction, Cursing, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Suicide, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, and Abortion

eliya's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Wowie. What a rollercoaster. The book was hard to get into at first, was a little groaning at the farm wife // small town stereotypes but by half way through I think it set a believable scene. I am a little skeptical about some of the events / facts that felt purely coincidental, not entirely believable. I almost DNFd because of how “perfectly” things were falling into place and how the dementia scenes with her uncle seemed to be the same thing over and over again. 
I definitely suspended my disbelief in order to have fun with the book and I did wind up enjoying it. 

Pleasantly surprised about the gayness!! :D Shame that one of them always fucking dies tho lmao. Really was on the edge of my seat with all of the plot twists hahaha it gave me a glimpse into what it might be like to be a journalist or a detective like constantly changing your focus/suspect. No good people to be found lmao. Epilogue was a roller coaster. I fully had sympathy for Billy and then very much didn’t. It was really fascinating and believable the conclusions his mind came to. Best part of the book I think.

Ultimately, chilling, sad, and I’m glad I read it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Dementia, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, and Physical abuse

Minor: Gun violence, Miscarriage, Kidnapping, and Stalking

cdkm9's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

A page-turner that had me hooked from the beginning and kept surprising me until the very end! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child death, Pedophilia, Dementia, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Gun violence, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Suicide, Kidnapping, Grief, and Stalking

Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Abortion, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

antidietleah's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

 This one had me hooked! Really well done for a debut novel. This is one instance where the author did a great job of weaving the past and present into the narrative. And it definitely kept me guessing! Most of the time, I was highly suspicious of multiple people - it wasn't overly obvious to me which is a WIN for a mystery. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Drug abuse, Infidelity, Suicide, and Kidnapping

Minor: Pregnancy and Alcohol

kellierosado's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

holy MOLY. I stopped reading at around 10% because I just couldn't get it to it. BOY WAS I WRONG. I picked it up again yesterday and hadn't put it down since. Not a single page was predictable and there was a new turn and twist with every chapter. My jaw was wide open by the end of the Epilogue. A book hasn't left me feeling this way in a very long time. 
Can't wait to see what is next! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Dementia

Moderate: Sexual assault and Kidnapping

caitbop5's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Infidelity, Dementia, Kidnapping, Stalking, and Murder

Moderate: Gun violence, Pedophilia, Self harm, Suicide, and Violence

Minor: Confinement, Miscarriage, Blood, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

fkshg8465's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Would’ve given this a five, except that I was frustrated by the ending. Storytelling was well done. All throughout the book, I had more information than any of the characters at any point in the story, but still, there were multiple red herrings to get through. And even though I had parts figured out in advance, including what really happened that night, which was only revealed at the very end, I was frustrated because there were multiple time lines, and the present time line was too abrupt for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

hermoine7's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

It kept me entertained throughout most of the book, because I wanted to find out what happened in the past and what would happen now. However, I didn’t like the ending. It didn’t make it clear what happened with a certain character. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Dementia, and Kidnapping